select Language

Willem Craeyvanger and Christine van der Wart of Arnhem – who had no fewer than eight children, six boys and two girls – had portraits painted of themselves and all their offspring. Not a group portrait – which would have been natural for such a large family – but ten individual likenesses. For more than 350 years, these unique portraits remained cherished family heirlooms, so almost no one knew them when they were sold at auction in May 2009.

The Craeyvanger family is the subject of an exceptional series of seventeenth-century paintings. In the period between 1651 and 1658, Willem Craeyvanger, Christine van der Wart and their eight children had their portraits painted by Gerard ter Borch, Caspar Netscher and Paulus Lesire: ten different canvases that remained in the family for around 350 years. This is a rare occurrence, as is the fact that no other similar series of seventeenth-century painted portraits of members of one single family is known. Museum de Fundatie presents the portraits of the Craeyvanger family from Arnhem, now in relation to other work by Netscher and Ter Borch, the most important artist in the history of Zwolle.